The Best Places to Watch New Movies Online

Last modified: September 9, 2018

By Stephen Lovely

Netflix is great, but it's not without its drawbacks. Its extensive catalog tends to be a bit short on recent releases. And when you want to watch the Oscar nominees or are trying to catch the last big superhero movie so that you can see the next one in theaters, this can be a problem. Happily, we're here to help. We're going to list out the best places to watch new movies online, including the best subscription streaming services for new movies as well as options for renting movies (and buying them, if you're into that).

The Best Places to Watch New Movies Online

We'll start our list below with our pick for the best subscription streaming service for new releases. After that, we'll cover all of the best places to rent new movies online, including plenty of services that will let you buy movies if you choose. Just remember that once you start buying movies, you'll be a bit more committed to whatever streaming service you're using. With that as a warning, behold: these are the best places to watch new movies online!

HBO was putting recent releases on the air back when it was competing with Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. It's still at it, and now that it's competing with Netflix as an on-demand subscription streaming service, the results are better than ever for fans of the latest films. HBO is easily one of the best places to watch new movies online – and if you're looking for a subscription streaming service, it's the best option.

Like Netflix and Hulu, Amazon struggles to snag brand-new content for its streaming services. But unlike those competitors, Amazon also offers the option to buy or rent movies. It's easy to hop between new releases to rent and other titles to stream on a Prime membership, because it all happens within one Amazon app. And if you buy a movie, it will be there in the app when you need it. It's easy to make a case for Amazon as one of the best places to stream new movies online.

FandangoNOW is the artist formally known as M-GO, a rental service that was acquired by the movie ticketing company in 2016. FandangoNOW works pretty much exactly like M-GO did, giving you the chance to rent movies from a list of options that includes plenty of recent releases. FandangoNOW enjoys a relatively prominent place in the menus of Roku devices, making it a convenient choice on that platform.

Google Play is Google's marketplace for movies, music, ebooks, and more. In the movies category, you'll find a ton of recent releases for sale and for rent. Google Play is a convenient option in part because it's supported by so many different devices. It's particularly appealing, of course, to those who use Android devices and other Google hardware and software.

Amazon, Google, and Apple love to compete, so it's no surprise to find all three of them represented here. iTunes has been around for ages, of course, but it's still a reliable way to buy or rent streaming content. It's not just for music, in case you didn't realize: iTunes also has TV shows and, you guessed it, movies. The iTunes app is free to download, and you can rent or buy content within the iTunes Store, which you can access through the app.

Another streaming service that focuses on rentals and purchases, Vudu is a simple and user-friendly app that serves the same purpose as its Amazon-, Google-, and Apple-owned competitors. Before you feel bad for poor little Vudu, you should know that it was acquired by Walmart a little while ago, so it has more than enough corporate backing to compete with the big boys. That's not necessarily a bad thing when you're choosing to buy streaming copies of movies, of course.

YouTube is famous for its user-generated content and its massive library of free-to-stream videos. But that's not all that YouTube does. Along with other money-making ventures, like its live TV streaming service, YouTube gives you the ability to rent movies on its platform. YouTube's near ubiquity in app stores and its familiar user interface make it a strong choice for this purpose.